Dallas attorney Jamey Newberg has been covering the Texas Rangers, from the big club down through the entire farm system, since 1998. His website can be found at www.newbergreport.com.

Got ‘em.

“You know, I was acting like I was scared,” he chuckled, “so he would throw me the same pitch. And he did. And I put a good swing on it.”

J Meric Getty Images

“That’s as surprised as I have ever been at a player’s answer on the postgame show,” said Eric Nadel, who has broadcasted over 5,000 Texas Rangers baseball games. “I was thinking from the time it happened and he got the double [that] we’ve gotta ask him on the postgame show about the knockdown pitch as a prelude to the game-winning hit.

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that that would be the answer. I thought he’d say, maybe, ‘I was mad,’ or ‘No big deal,’ but for him to say he acted scared so he would get the same pitch again, that was amazing.

“You talk about a guy who has instincts for the game? That’s brilliant.”

I watched the sequence again, several times. The wince, the pained scowl as he walked away from the box to regather himself, the settling back in for the next Kyle Farnsworth pitch.

The swing.

Wash nudging Josh Hamilton in the dugout, at the front of a visitors’ dugout in St. Petersburg that I remember seeing look that alive last October.

Jurickson Profar crossed the plate after Hamilton was clipped in the foot with the bases full, and the dugout was still alive, messing with Profar like a bunch of 19-year-olds.

Later during the postgame interview that Nadel and Matt Hicks did with Profar, the man with two big league starts and two game-winning hits recalled what was going on his head as he awaited his final at-bat in the on-deck circle.

“As soon as Geo hit that double, I was thinking, ‘We got ’em.’”

Asked after the game what Profar has meant to the team since arriving a week earlier, Hamilton smiled and said, “He brings a lot of energy.”

Categories

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.